Time Flies
by happydaysarehere
Summary: Alternate universe(some hurt/comfort) Sonic underestimated what Eggman is capable of, and after a careless misstep he disappears without a trace for ten years. Upon his return, Amy is now the leader of the freedom fighters, fighting tooth and nail to protect the last Mobians from Eggman's wrath. No longer top dog, Sonic has to relearn everything so he can fight to reclaim his home.
1. Chapter 1

author's note:

BY THE WAY THIS ISNT REALLY FOR TINY BABIES, PEOPLE DO VIOLENCE AND IT GETS SUPER ANGSTY, if you have problems with that then you have been warned, kiddo.

Now don't be fooled by the whole "freedom fighters" thing or the use of characters like sally. I have never read the comics or watched sonic satAM. I vaguely know stuff about them but I don't have the sort of time to catch up with them. So uh, yeah.

This isn't the first fanfic I've ever written but it's gonna be the first one I publish. so uh, i dont know anyhthing about how to work this website. i might also upload it on AO3, just for funsies.

It's not as good as I would like it to be though, so if you think of ways it could be better, let me know. also i haven't really edited this one too much from when i first wrote it so uh, let me know if somethings off. oof, this is... experimental. not too confident about this.

i'm planning to update it every saturday or sunday.

And i'm still in the process of editing some of these chapters, but they are coming along, and i have someone helping me out 3

R&R is appreciated

okay, here you go!

* * *

Tails held a device, beeping in his hand.

Knuckles sighed loudly.

They had been walking around what used to be a building, reduced to a pile of rubble over the years.

"Why do we have to go through all the trouble of coming all the way out here? This place has been abandoned for years." He groaned.

"I don't know, I just figured we should make sure someone wasn't actually in trouble."

"Wouldn't the distress signal tell you _what_ was happening?"

"Usually, but apparently not this one. It either means that it's an old alarm that couldn't collect that kind of data, or the machine didn't have time to send that information."

"So either some rubble fell on a switch somewhere, or they're already dead, great. Its not like we have anything else to do." Knuckles said sarcastically. Tails rolled his eyes.

"Sorry for waking you up so early, by the way," Tails smiled mischievously. Knuckles laughed.

"Where was that apology half an hour ago?" Knuckles chuckled. He was silent for a bit. " Do you think well actually find anything?"

"No, knuckles, that's why I dragged you out here." Tails mocked him, sarcastically. "To be honest, I think it's probably a trap."

"So we're walking right into a trap?"

"Possibly. That's why I brought you."

"I'm flattered. But really, you have a plan don't you?"

"The plan is don't split up, and stay aware. This thing should detect traps anyway." Tails waved the thing.

Suddenly it started beeping rapidly. He turned to it.

"Did you break it?" Knuckles said.

Tails examined it.

"Actually, it looks like I knocked some more sense into it. The signal should be coming from… Right here." He started walking towards it.

"Doesn't look like there's anything here." Knuckles examined a roman-style column that the sensor had pointed to. He looked at the device. Everything seemed to be in order.

Then Tails realized that the column was out of place, they hadn't seen anything like it in the rubble. So why was this one in good condition? Knuckles seemed to have the same thought, he ran his hand over it.

"Hey, this is made of metal…" he knocked lightly on it. "But its not hollow…"

Suddenly a little keypad popped out.

"Password please?" a quiet voice warbled through the busted speaker.

Kuckles looked at this. "Think you can crack this?"

Tails chuckled. "Who do you think I am? That thing is ancient!"

He steped forward, and stuck a small machine up against the keypad, and the correct code showed up on the screen, it turned green.

"Cryogenic storage emergency signal has been responded, completing reintroduction process." The voice said.

"Cryogenic storage emergency signal?" Knuckles said.

"Most cryogenic storage units have some kind of emergency escape in order to keep people from using cryogenic machines to hold people hostage against their will. But it's useless, since most can be easily reprogrammed to mind control the one in storage."

"Then whats the point of it?"

"I don't know, I think they hope that most people would be strong enough to resist the mind control."

"And are they?"

"Probably not."

"This prisoner is high security, a note had been left warning against opening. The prisoner inside is not meant to be released. Are you sure you want to continue?"

"See, prisoner? What did I tell you?" Tails said. Knuckles wasn't sure.

"I have a bad feeling Tails… What if it turns out they are a prisoner for a reason?"

"Prisoner has been in storage for 10 years. The prisoner activated a removal process of low priority 8 months ago, when the mind control program experienced an error. The process is nearing completion. It is safe to remove the prisoner, although they might experience several issues. Including : muscle atrophy resulting in approximately 16% of normal strength, Insomnia, sensory overload, fatigue, irregular heart rate, lost memory, possible heart murmur, excessive vomiting, trouble breathing or eating… etc."

Tails smirked. "If they want to pick a fight, they'll be too weak to lift a finger, so it's their funeral."

"Please input the security code if you want to continue."

Tails held the password cracking device to the machine again, this time it had a bit more difficulty.

"Extraction process commencing. Please note, the machine is experiencing malfunctions…

Replanting extracted memories… 0%, 66%, 100% … accelerating ambiot extractions… 70%, 79%, 85%, 90%, 100%, oxygen replacement malfunctioning, using outside air… 4%, 78%, 95% 98% 100%... ambiot tank valve malfunctioning, removing replacement devices. 0%, 80%, 100%.

Finished, please step back."

Tails and knuckles stepped back ,as a surprisingly big hole in the floor opened up.

"How old is this thing? Cryogenic storage containers are usually smaller." Tails remarked.

"I assume, 10 years? That's how long it said, right?"Knuckles answered.

"Well normally, they would get moved to a newer machine…"

"This place _is_ abandoned…"

The machine rose from the ground, covered in dust and bugs. The door buzzed, waiting for the command on the keyboard that would open the door.

Tails walked up to the glass pod, and brushed off dust at eye level. Inside, he could have sworn he saw…

He stumbled back, feeling his heartbeat and his head slam the brakes.

He tripped, falling backwards onto the ground noiselessly.

"You okay?"

Tails had no words. Knuckles looked himself, and reacted similarly. He spoke, looking at his feet in shock.

"I think we just discovered something very dangerous…"

* * *

Years ago.

Sonic watched the shadow in the distance

"I don't see anything…" he said. Tails shoved a pair of binoculars into his hands. "oh."

"Just look"

Sonic peered through the binoculars.

Something suspicious was happening alright

One of Eggman's bases had been looming in the distance for years now, but now there was all sorts of stuff being moved and shifted and big robot arms, but it was all just shadows, he couldn't see anything specific.

"Hmmm…" He put down the binoculars. "That's… something."

"What should we do?" Tails asked, sonic turned to look down at his friend. The 8 year old gazed up expectantly. Sonic only ever had one plan, but it had never failed him.

"We go and investigate ourselves… If he's building something we'll catch him in the act."

"I could easily hack into his database from here so we at least know what we're expecting."

"That would take too long. What happens if he finished building it after we've figured out how bad it is?"

"I… I just have a bad feeling sonic, and it's a risk either way… So we should just play it safe!"

"Since when did we play things safe?" sonic asked. Tails was silent. "We're being safe either way anyway,"

"I have a bad feeling…"

"you keep saying that, are you feeling alright?" Sonic smiled. "Tell you what, if I get in trouble out there, then you win, if it turns out I'm right, and it's better to stop him now, then I win."

The younger one relaxed little "And what does the winner get?"

"…The pride of knowing they won? I'll decide later."

Tails rolled his eyes. "How about … first pick for dinner?"

"Deal." Sonic said. "see you then, tails."

And he ran off. And it wasn't very long at all until he was there.

As he approached the entrance, he realized nothing had tried to kill him, yet, so he was catching egghead off guard… But as he approached, all the movement stopped. Sonic slowed to a stop In front of the front doors. Before he could think, the monitor above the door blinked to life.

"Ah, I see you're here, hedgehog."

"Looks like there's a lot going on here, or at least it did…" Sonic looked around, what _was_ going on?

"And why are you here?"

"Don't be so rude, I'm just dropping in to see what you're up to."

"Up to? I'm not up to anything, hedgehog."

"Then what are you building?"

"I'm not building anything, I'm moving something up from the basement."

"What?"

"Something I cant believe I didn't think to use before."

The doctor grinned, the front door opened.

Sonic stopped breathing before he could react to a blinding light..

Next came darkness. Confusion.

He could have sworn he opened his eyes and saw pure darkness. He may have seen a flashing red blur or heard muffled beeping or voices. But he was too preoccupied to wonder what it meant, as his lungs were filled with a syrupy tasteless fluid, but they didn't object to breathing the thick stuff.

It was only tasteless in that it tasted like melted glue or plastic. He tried to fight against the dark walls hopelessly. He no longer felt like he had weight, his feet never found a ground but he was being pressed on by the liquid on all sides at all times. It made moving his arms and legs difficult and it didn't feel good at all to have the substance slide around him.

He felt better staying still. Which was an odd sensation, as eventually, the voice in his brain telling him to kick and run and punch, that he hated being cooped up more than anything else and he just wanted to run and move freely eventually got quieter and quieter until he couldn't hear himself think over oppressive silence.

When all of a sudden a warm feeling washed over his brain, his eyes were forced closed and his consciousness faded into the murky environment.

He dreamed.

* * *

He woke up.

he only saw darkness.

He opened his eyes. He was blinded by a blurry light. He wanted it to go away, let him go back to the world where his friends were, they were probably worried about him, wondering where he had went. He tried to block it, he wast sure how. He suddenly was reminded that he had limbs, he tried to move his arm to block the light.

It hurt, it hurt so much. But the light was blinding him, and something was telling him not to close his eyes, so he didn't want to. So he fought the pain with all the had, which judging by how quickly it exhausted him, it wasn't much. he fought against it, and felt his arm slide against a liquid, pressing down on him from every angle.

Oh yeah, that stuff. He reached out towards the blue light. Suddenly, his finger brushed against something. Something made a deafening loud high pitched noise. He fell back asleep. Back into the dream he had been having.

* * *

He woke up to darkness, then opened his eyes. A red light was in front of him, he waded his arm through the fluid to swat at it. The red button was pressed, and then there was a loud noise so blaring that knocked him out.

* * *

End of chapter 1


	2. Chapter 2

Something stirred him.

Voices?

Beeping?

He didn't want to open his eyes.

He knew it was bright out there. He wanted to go back to sleep.

* * *

Tails and Knuckles stared helplessly at the machine.

"So, what do we do?" Knuckles asked Tails, trying to keep calm, hoping that the smart one would have an answer.

"Oh my god… All this time… He was…"

Knuckles's head hurt.

"Am I dreaming…?" He mumbled.

"I… Oh my god… We found him… What do we-?" Tails turned to Knuckles, getting progressively more excited but at the same time he looked scared and bleak." Should we let him out?"

Knuckles looked at the machine. He thought for a moment, and sadly, he shook his head.

"What are you talking about?! Of course we should!... Right?" Tails spun back to the machine, frantically looking around.

"I'm just thinking… So much changed… I…" Knuckles grumbled.

"Well… We can't exactly leave him here to rot, can we? Someone's got to let him go someday…" Tails reasoned, but was still hesitating to move from where he stood.

Knuckles was silent.

Tails moved to the input device.

One last "are you sure?"

Tails wasn't sure. There wasn't any way to play it safe now.

"We can't get emotional. It's probably got traps on it." Knuckles reminded him. Tails took a deep breath and straightened up. He cleared his mind, and took the leap.

He hit the "yes" button.

The door unlocked, and out gushed gallons and gallons of a milky thick and syrupy fluid, and with it, Sonic the Hedgehog slid out, covered in gross goo. Tails found himself unsure of what to do next.

"Well… we made our decision; we should follow through with it." Knuckles sighed with a hint of exasperation in his voice. He stepped over carefully and threw the unconscious slippery hedgehog over his shoulder.

"Let's try to get back without being noticed."

* * *

He finally had the courage to open his eyes. And indeed the light was blinding. He squinted and lifted his hand to block the light. Doing so was easier than he expected, he ended up throwing his arm out, surprising himself. He felt really dizzy and nauseous. He heard loud voices, so he covered his ears, and was surprised how easy and quick it was, nothing stopping him from doing this, no liquid making moving a chore, and he didn't pass out. He spent a few minutes like this. Experimenting with his ability to move. Until finally, he felt brave enough to unplug one ear, and it wasn't so loud, he had gotten used to it a little. He unplugged the other, but he didn't open his eyes.

"Hey… Are you alright there, buddy?" A voice sounded beside him.

"He's still waking up, go easy on him, okay?" Another voice sounded ahead of him. "he's been underground for so long, he's not used to light, or sound, or motion, or fresh air, which reminds me, if he looks like he's gonna puke make sure-"

He felt something force its way up his throat, he gagged and felt a gross taste wash over his mouth. But just in time, something held and guided his head to the side, pushing him forward and it hurt. He hurled and coughed up the syrupy liquid. It felt weird to open his mouth. But the stuff seemed to stream out endlessly.

He kept coughing, the marveled when he didn't need to cough after a few times. Instead of fluid, his lungs took in a cleaner, lighter stuff, that seemed to make them work better, faster, he felt his head clear up, slowly.

"…You okay?" the voice beside him sounded. Sounded familiar.

"Give him a minute…"

He waited… and then he remembered his native language, piece by piece.

He cleared his throat.

"I…" he held the note "I "for a while, testing out his voice. It hurt, but it was familiar.

"Sonic?" the voice next to him asked.

He remembered. That was probably him, right?

"Yeahhh?" he nodded hesitantly.

"Do you remember anything?" The voice asked.

"Not… very much."

"Why aren't you opening you eyes?"

"Too bright."

"It's… Night time." He sounded disappointed

"Who are you?" Sonic asked. That was his name, Sonic, yes.

"I'm Knuckles, your friend, you remember?"

He thought. Yeah, Knuckles… The red guy right? He was the stubborn one… His voice matched up, probably.

"Give him some time, he'll start to remember when his heart rate evens out."

That was the yellow guy! T, began with a T... Tails?

"Tails? Knuckles?" He mumbled.

They were silent. He tried opening his eyes, and it wasn't that bright… He looked around, and slowly he remembered more and more.

"Do you remember?"

"Yeah… I remember. But where am i?"

"Angel Island. We're driving back to the mountain." Knuckles said.

"What happened to me?" He asked. They were quiet for a second.

"One day, you went off to investigate Eggman, he was up to something and we knew it. You never came back. Presumably he put you in cryogenic storage."

"Cryogenic storage?" he murmured.

"Hey, wait, is it just me or do you look older? Does that usually happen to people in cryogenic storage?" knuckles asked.

"No, but since the machine wasn't maintained, it probably was unable to keep his body from aging. So instead he just ended up in a mind-control coma." Tails explained.

"a coma, huh?" Knuckles said.

"I had an awful dream." Sonic mumbled.

"…about what?"

"… I forgot." He chuckled.

"that's a good sign." Tails said. "It means you brain is forgetting it to make space for your other memories."

"Say… where are we gonna bring him? We can't exactly bring him back like this."Knuckles leaded forward in his seat to talk to tails, who was siting in front of him in the driver's seat. Tails shrugged.

"We don't have much of a choice."

"Where are we going?"Sonic asked.

"Back home, to the rest of our friends,."

"Friends?"

"You know, Shadow and Cream and Vanilla and Rouge and Silver and Blaze, Amy and the rest."

Sonic began to remember all the names as they were spoken, who they were and his relation to them. He could see clearly now.

"hahah… Amy is going to be ecstatic to see him again." Knuckles joked. Sonic laughed, Tails didn't.

Sonic looked forward to seeing everyone, again, even if he would not normally have gotten along with them.

Sonic shifted in his seat.

"When are we gonna get there?"

"It won't be long."

"… Can I run there?"

"I don't know if that's such a good idea."

Sonic slumped down in his seat. Tails was such a stickler.

"Well, at least he's beginning to sound like himself…"

* * *

End of chapter 2

* * *

Ok ok, this ones a bit shorter, see?

I have my work cut out for me. thank god I didn't decide to upload the one that revolves around my fan character. Also, I should actually study for my Japanese exam, which is tomorrow. Also I should probably get on that essay for English… So uh. Yeah, I might not have that actually finished for… a while.

Sorry for the semi-gross descriptions of how sonic feels, and the barfing, i told you this wasn't for kids, but hey if you were asleep underground in goo for 10 years you'd feel pretty messed up, right?

Once again, if you have any complaints or criticism about the story, speak up and I'll get to it! Or even if you have like suggestions for what I should do for the rest of it, tbh, this story is incomplete and the stuff I have written im probably going to heavily edit/rewrite altogether.

But hey, maybe, soon, i'll get around to that.


	3. Chapter 3

They drove up to the mountain, as Sonic was just remembering his surroundings, Tails spoke up.

"Knuckles, check the sky for drones. We wouldn't want to be spotted."

"Got it." Knuckles twisted around in his seat and opened up the trunk of the open-roof car. Curious, sonic looked back to see what Knuckles was doing. From the trunk, Knuckles pulled out a metallic box, and then put it down on his lap. He opened it, as Sonic watched with fascination.

From the box, Knuckles produced a machine, and as soon as knuckles put it on the seat between him and Sonic, it expanded, a tube protruding out of the middle, pointing towards the sky. The base of it extended down, resting on the floor, it seemed to be the heaviest and most intricate part of the machine. Knuckles took out something else from the box. sonic recoiled in fear, leaning as far away from knuckles as possible. It was bombs. Sonic stayed silent but watched frozen in confusion and fear as knuckles put the small, dimly glowing balls into the tube of the device.

"What? What are you doing?" Sonic finally asked as they got closer and closer to the mountain of Angel Island. "where are we going anyway?" Green Hill was no where near Angel Island, why were they going deeper into the island?

"Calm down , I'm just getting ready in case we're attacked." Knuckles shrugged, now looking at a computer in the box.

"Why do you need those bombs?"

"We're going home." Tails explained. "Those aren't really bombs, they use electromagnetic energy to disrupt radars. If there's some sort of surveillance drone around, we need to block its signal so it won't be able to detect us." Well, that wasn't much better but…

" _These_ are bombs!" Knuckles said, all too chipper, and he produced slightly different looking metallic objects from the box and showed them off to Sonic. Sonic felt fear shoot up his spine.

Knuckles laughed at him as Sonic weakly gripped the sides of the car, holding on for dear life. This was all too much in one night, he felt like he might puke again. He tried to regain his senses. He turned to tails for answers.

"What the heck are we doing with bombs in this car!?" Sonic nearly shouted but it made his throat really hurt. Tails glanced backwards.

"Knuckles, cut him a break, he's still recovering!"

" I don't remember you being such a sissy, Sonic!" Knuckles laughed.

"Answer my question, why do we have bombs?!" Sonic kept a strong grip on the side of the car, but he was feeling dizzy again and he felt like he might be sick. He was being tossed around by the car now, he hadn't even noticed when the road got so bumpy. He was also starting to feel achy all over.

"We need them to protect ourselves from Robotnik." Tails explained.

"Eggman?! We don't need bombs for Eggman! "

Tails and knuckles were really quiet all of a sudden.

"I see one, west of us by a 50 degree margin, about 10 to 20 kilometers, permission to fire?" Knuckles said, reading off of the screen.

"Go for it. Lets be safe." Tails nodded.

"firing 3." Knuckles fiddled with the machine. The cannon shifted down and to the left a little with mechanical whirring and a metallic thunk. "and 1,2,3…" with a crisp crack, 3 of the ball things shot out of the cannon and into the air, past the canopy of trees, and disappeared out of sight. "Got it."

Knuckles started to put away the cannon, folding it up, clearing up the seat, stuffing it away in the box.

"You don't really need bombs for Eggman, right?" Sonic raised an eyebrow.

Tails looked back at Sonic, locking eyes with him. His expression was so unreadable, and raw. Tails looked all at once scared, sympathetic, and furious. Sonic blinked. was Tails mad at him? Why? Apparently his confusion showed, because Tails was scowling as he turned back to the road.

"Come on, not old egghead!"

Knuckles turned away, looking out into the woods.

"He's a lunatic, nothing more. He couldn't actually hurt anyone."

As Sonic said this. Tails slammed on the brake. Sonic lurched forward, smacking is chest on the seat in front of him, hard. It wasn't cushioned enough, cause he felt the air exit his lungs and he hurt all over. He lurched back to the seat, coughing and hacking. Trying to catch his breath, gasping for air. He still felt dizzy, like he might puke, and his body hurt all over. But now he was just getting more and more dizzy, he felt his consciousness swimming as he tried to breathe.

Tails didn't look back, but he seemed satisfied that Sonic had gotten the wind knocked out of him and he could no longer talk. Tails accelerated again and regained the pace.

Knuckles looked over to Sonic, watching him slowly recover. He wanted to say something, but held his tongue, worried about what Sonic would say next.

Sonic eventually managed to slow his breathing to long, laborious gasping. With enough room for him to speak, the first thing he could think to say.

"Sorry." He took a break to cough until he could say a full sentence. "I'll shut up about it."

"Yeah, I'm sorry too…" Said Tails. "It's okay, you didn't know."

" Jeeze Sonic, you're being sort of a drama queen, you okay?" Knuckles finally spoke up.

"Well, I should have been wearing a seat belt." Sonic weakly chuckled between coughs. That made Knuckles smile a little.

They sat in silence for a long while as Sonic started to breathe normally again. When suddenly, the car approached a steep cliff in the mountain, he nearly panicked, thinking there were about to crash into the cliff wall, when suddenly they drove through it, like a hologram. Sonic looked back and saw the inside of the cave wall that they just drove through. They were in a tunnel, dimly lit by ceiling and floor lights with a warm glow. It looked pretty, and the air was earthy and cool, a little more stuffy than it was outside, but this wasn't home.

"Okay, if this is another thing I shouldn't talk about. I understand but, where exactly are we going?"

"What do you mean?" asked tails.

"I thought you said we were going home."

"We are." Said knuckles.

"Ohh, sorry, well, we relocated to um… Angel Island." Tails said.

"Relocated? What about Green Hill?"

"We built a whole city inside the big mountain on angel island to hide us. The Freedom Fighters protect it from Eggman." Knuckles said as he leaned back in his seat.

"I think you might learn to like it here, there's not much free space, but there is plenty to do." Tails said.

"is that so?" Sonic pondered, he felt like he didn't really understand but, its not like he really had the energy to question them too much right now.

Just then the tunnel ended and gave way to a giant cave, illuminated along the walls, but mostly by streetlights, buildings and windows glowing with warm light, illuminating the rocky mountain.

"whoa!" Sonic sat upright in his seat, looking out over the earthy cityscape. The buildings were made mostly of rock and some metal. There were giant flat screens on high building broadcasting news programs and TV shows. The downtown area was surrounded by smaller residential buildings, there were shops, people every where and illuminated windows. even from far away he could tell the town was bustling.

"This is incredible…"

"Glad you like it!" Knuckles smiled.

"Angel Island's largest mountain is actually a dormant volcano. So, the inside was already mostly hollow, the geothermal energy is what powers the city and keeps it warm, even in winter!" Tails explained.

"Life goes on here, even though we're in hiding."

"This is super impressive guys!" Sonic looked around ,trying to take in everything at once, his head spinning. " Who's idea was it, building a hidden city in a volcano? I bet it was you Tails." Sonic chuckled and patted Tails on the head.

"Well, actually the whole thing was Amy's idea." Tails looked a little embarrassed.

"What?! Amy?" Sonic's eyes widened, he leaned back in his seat. Knuckles laughed.

"A lot changed since you left! She's the leader of the Freedom Fighters!" Knuckles explained.

"What?! What about Sally?"

"She… was leader for a while, but eventually, she made Amy the leader. It's a long story."Tails said.

"Why did she make Amy the leader? Sally is a princess! She has, you know, experience."

"You didn't have leadership experience while you were leader." Tails pointed out.

Sonic stumbled.

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Besides, its really complicated." Tails sighed.

Sonic was about to interject when Tails pulled into a parking lot.

"No vehicles past this point. Come on guys, let's walk. Were gonna take the shortcut back to the base." Tails parked the car and turned it off. he swung open the door and hopped out. Knuckles followed suit.

Sonic confidently opened the door, and stepped down to the gravelly ground, to no avail. His knees immediately buckled, he tumbled forward, face down into the dirt. his feet were sore and achy. His shoes were too small… Knuckles and Tails glanced his way then looked concernedly at each other.

"I'm okay!"Sonic called out. He sat on the ground, and took off his socks and shoes, which were soaking wet and way too tight.

The gravel was like broken glass on his soft skin, and having to stand on it felt horrible. He held himself upright on the car as he slowly adjusted to putting weight on his paws again. Well, he got his left leg to work, but his right leg was refusing to work correctly.

"You're still recovering… If you want we can help you out." Tails walked over to Sonic.

"Nah, I'm fine, just give me a minute to uh… figure out how to do this."

It was supposed to be easy, just one foot in front of the other. But his body was feeling really different, the last time he ran didn't feel like it was too long ago, but he just couldn't remember what if felt like to walk. Eventually he was pretty sure he got the hang of it.

"Okay. here I go." He took a deep breath and stepped away from the car, letting go of it and putting his weight on his feet. The bottoms of his feet screamed in pain and his knees gave out immediately, once again throwing him down to the ground.

"Here" knuckles ran around to his side and picked him up from under his arm on the opposite side.

"No,I don't need your help…" Sonic tried to insist. "Get off of me!"But as soon as knuckles let him go, he dropped to the ground again. He tried to pick himself up, but his body felt so much heavier than he remembered. Being crumpled on the gravel made him realize how tired he was and how much his stomach hurt with hunger. He felt pathetic, having to rest and catch his breath sitting on the ground with his arms limply hanging. he sighed hopelessly.

"Your muscles atrophied while you were comatose… " Tails looked down to him, sympathetically."So you aren't as strong as you used to be."

Knuckles picked sonic up off the ground again by his shoulders.

"Come on buddy, we've all had a long night, we gotta get you home."

"Okay… Fine." Sonic accepted defeat.

"Man, you're even lighter than I remember." Knuckles said.

" _Don't_ push it." Warned Sonic.

"Good evening, officer…" Tails greeted the guard in the booth by the exit, an aging man, a mouse.

"Ah Tails, Knuckles, nice to see you back. Anything to report?"

"We used three of the electric blockers in the trunk on a drone. And the back seat is a little slimy. But, uh, other than that nothing unusual."

"You brought back a third?"

"Yes, we found him on the outside."

"Someone from this city, or an outside camp, perhaps?"

"Well… no, he was all alone."

The guard craned his neck to look at Sonic. He was sounding increasingly more concerned with every question.

"Well, is he hurt?" he asked, looking at Sonic, being held up by Knuckles.

"No, but he's weak."Tails shook his head.

"Son, if I'm not mistaken, that boy looks exactly like Sonic the Hedgehog." The man's tone became someone suspicious. Sonic looked proudly at the old man. Well , as proudly as he could.

"Uh… no sir I think you are—"Tails started to say.

"You bet I am, old man, I am Sonic the Hedgehog." Sonic called out, as loud as he could muster, holding his head as high as he could and looking confidently at the old man. He was gonna get his life back. Spread the news, the blue blur is back! He locked eyes with the old man, but his face was obscured by glasses. The man turned slowly back to tails, acting as if he hadn't seen or heard that.

"… Where do you intend to take this young man?"

"Well, we aren't sure. We'll probably take him back to the base so the freedom fighters can watch over him."

"Son," he leaned forward and tilted his glasses " you're sure that's actually Sonic the Hedgehog?"

"We're pretty sure… But I guess we don't really know for sure, he might not be."

"Well, then I guess there's no helping it. Do what you will."

"Thanks officer." Tails said, proceeding past the gate.

"Word of advice, Mr. Hedgehog." the old man spoke to Sonic, leaning in as he passed. "Pretending to be Sonic may garner sympathy from them, but you may find yourself not so willing to go impersonating Sonic in public. "

"Yeah, right." Sonic sighed, rolling his eyes.

They walked along for quite a ways. And eventually the narrow road evened out to a cool, smooth rock road. now Sonic could practice putting weight on his feet without puncturing the bottoms of his paws. Tails was now supporting his other side, and Sonic slowly was able to put more and more weight on his feet. Practicing, one foot in front of the other, one two, one two.

And the downtown of the city got closer and closer, brighter and brighter. Everything else that happened would soon be far behind him. As soon as he could walk on his own, it wouldn't be long before he could run on his own. Then he would be back to his old self. But they kept walking until they were in the down town area and Sonic still couldn't walk on his own, even if he found he could support himself standing, when he tried to move his knees would give up.

They suddenly stopped in the center of the square.

"this is the town square." Tails said. "you wanna try to walk a bit here? it probably has the most open space."

"yeah" Sonic said, but as soon as he looked up from his feet, his stomach lurched. Bright lights, all the loud voices of people talking... everyone was staring at him and talking around him.

"that guy… who is he? I've never seen him before."

"Why is he with tails and knuckles?"

"Doesn't he looks just like Sonic the Hedgehog?"

"no way, that's gotta be him, the real Sonic the Hedgehog."

"that cant be Sonic. Sonic is dead."

"if It is Sonic he sure has a lot of nerve"

"who cares if it is him or it isn't, what is he doing?"

"why is he here?"

"traitor!"

"traitor!"

"you left us all behind!" it escalated to shouting at him.

It was all too much. He groaned as his head started aching and swimming, he felt like he was gonna lose consciousness again, as the contents of his stomach boiled. With a yelp, he lost tails's and knuckles's support and was on his feet, standing, at first, then losing his balance and stumbling forward, moving his legs without being able to keep up. Bumping into things before collapsing on the ground.

at least he caught himself with his arms, but he was weak, holding himself up stung his arms. He stayed there for a second, regaining a sense of the world around him. He looked up and everyone was staring at him. Not a single person he recognized, city lights, voices getting louder and louder, blurring together into an unclear mess of sensory input. He felt the remaining contents of his stomach fight with him and then all at once rocket up his throat.

Not here, not in front of everyone… his mouth opened and the watery syrupy stuff from before shot out of his mouth and landed on the ground. He fell over, pushing himself only so he wouldn't land on the puke, but giving up on supporting himself much longer. How pathetic. What an entrance. He closed his eyes and felt tears develop behind his eyelids.

This wasn't what he imagined.

Suddenly everyone crowded around him, shouting and yelling about him. He felt like he was regaining some sense, but he didn't want to. He just wanted to pass out and not have to know what was going on.

"what do you have to say for yourself?!"

"sorry…I'm sorry." he uttered weakly, in a vain attempt to make them turn a blind eye.

Then he felt a paw on his shoulder.

"Sonic, you'll be okay." It was Tails's voice.

"everyone give him some space." He heard Knuckles.

"come on." Tails grabbed him under his torso and pulled him up with some effort. Knuckles then came around and supported the other side. Sonic still didn't want to open his eyes.

"Sonic—" Tails tried to tell him something. But he felt them all stop moving.

"Answer the question." There was an unfamiliar voice in front of them. Sonic slowly opened his eyes.

"Is that the real Sonic the Hedgehog?"

There was a wall of strangers in front of them.

"…yes. It is." Replied Knuckles. "he's just not in good condition."

"if Sonic the Hedgehog is truly alive then where the hell was he for the past ten years!?" the woman, a koala, leading the mob of people . "Where was Sonic the Hedgehog while our families were being slaughtered by Robotnik's fleet?"

"he was… being imprisoned by Eggman-" Tails started.

"Bull honkey!" an old man yelled from further back. "the freedom fighters have searched every nook and cranny of every one of Eggman's prisons for Sonic, you know that better than any one!"

"so where was he really?"

Sonic tried to tune out the yelling and shut his eyes, but his attention was called when knuckles let go of him and spoke up.

"that's enough!" the crowd quieted down.

"listen, we don't know how it happened but Sonic really was being imprisoned by Eggman. And he's in bad shape. We need to take him back to the freedom fighters and—" the crowd started up again.

"we cant trust the Freedom Fighters with him!"

"he doesn't belong with them anymore!"

"he'll ruin everything!"

"let me finish!" Knuckles roared. The crowd was hushed once more. "the Freedom Fighters will come up with a plan regarding what we should do with him. Weather we should keep him around or not. Once he has recovered we can release information on what happened, and until then, I want you all to forget what you've seen, nothing can be done about it until we hear from general Rose!" he took a deep breath "I repeat, we are taking him to general Rose until we decide what to do."

That seemed to calm everyone down.

"Well. I'm sure that Ms. Rose will make the right decision." sighed the koala. "fine…"

The crowd finally dispersed, knuckles picked up Sonic again ,and they continued on their way, but Sonic could feel lingering stares.

"yeesh, im so sorry Sonic. I didn't think that would happen." Admitted Tails

"A lot happened since you left. You're not really the hero you once were." Said Knuckles.

"but I'm not… a traitor, I didn't leave, I just…." He had a hard time talking.

"We know Sonic, they just… " tails trailed off.

"hey, come on, we can chat once we get back to the base." Knuckles said.

"sorry for throwing up though…" Sonic grumbled. The other two didn't really respond.

"well, at least I walked on my own for a bit."

They all chuckled a little.

That was a start.

* * *

End of chapter 2.

* * *

Ok that was a little long, and sorta over dramatic. But, thank you for reading it anyway.

So yeah, that's basically the setup.

Sonic is just such an asshole, I love to beat him up in my stories, it's just how I express my affection, ya feel? No? that's ok, this is a coming of age story.

Also freedom fighters is pretty much gonna refer to sonic and his friends as a group, except they're also like a military? Even though I don't really know what the freedom fighter's deal is in canon? do the freedom fighters have a leader even? is it sonic or sally? shrug.

So yeah, next time, sonic reunites with the freedom fighters! Look forward to it!


	4. Chapter 4

They continued on the dimly lit road, gawking pedestrians passing them by. Sonic tried to ignore them but he was still in shock from all the confusion, and he was beginning to get concerned. What exactly did people think about him now that all this time had passed and so much changed?

He tried to get the thought out of his head.

Well, at least his friends would understand, he was sure.

They had walked, he realized, across the city from one wall of the cave to another. This had taken considerable time, but how much time? He had no idea.

Approaching the wall of the cave, the three reached a small doorway in a dimly lit pile of rocks.

Tails took out a little card from the bag slung over his shoulder and opened a secret panel on one of the rocks he held the card up to a scanner, and after a tone, the door opened. Knuckles waved to a guard in the next room, who sat on the other side of a window and waved them on, apparently not really paying too much attention, because she payed sonic no mind.

They entered a doorway into a circular, clean metallic room. On the other side of the room was what seemed to be an elevator. There were benches on the side of the room, and Tails and Knuckles carefully loaded sonic onto one of the benches. Sonic leaned against the wall, tired, oddly enough. But feeling slightly less sick and more hungry.

"So uh, what are we gonna do?" Knuckles spoke up, glancing to Tails.

"Well. We should take him to the living quarters, there are guest rooms there."

"Shouldn't we take him to the nurse?" Knuckles asked.

"I'm fine, just a little hungry." Sonic looked at them. He wasn't sure how he felt about them talking about him like he wasn't there.

"But, if we take him to the living quarters we'll pass by the bar and the dining room and the living room…" Knuckles pointed out.

"So?"asked Tails.

"So, we'll pass by everyone else, and then we'll have to sit around explaining the whole thing."

"…That's bound to get messy…" Tails admitted.

"Well, it's past midnight, maybe they went to bed." Knuckles pointed out.

"not after last night. Everyone's too on edge."

"What are you talking about?" Sonic interrupted them.

"Sorry Sonic, you may not get to go to bed for a while…" Tails turned to him.

"Well that's fine, where are we going?"

"Living space?" Knuckles looked to Tails and Tails nodded. Knuckles turned to the elevator and pressed the "up" key.

"I hope we have our story straight "

"…Uh, yeah." What was his story, actually, what happened? He slept? He was buried? He was trapped?

The elevator arrived, and knuckled supported sonic again, almost pulling him off his feet.

"Hey careful!" Sonic stumbled, his shoulders ached, even though he was just being held up by them. He was dragged into the elevator.

"Well, sorry, princess," Knuckles joked."Am I not servicing you well enough?"

"Oh, don't even think about trying to carry me!"Sonic could still guess what Knuckles was thinking.

"Oh then I guess you should know he carried you over his shoulder out of the ruins." Tails stated, laughing. He pressed a button on the elevator.

"Like a heavy sack." Knuckles agreed.

"What?! You can't be serious." Sonic laughed in spite of himself.

"now that I think about it, I've been carrying you around all night, and you still stink of that slimy goop you were in. Maybe Tails should carry you for a while." he turned to Tails.

"What? No! I mean… not that I'm not strong enough to do it, but you're not even tired, right? I'll carry him when you get tired."

"Oh, sure you will, we're already home!"

The three were laughing like old times again.

"Hey when do I get to carry me? As much as I appreciate you guys helping me out right now, this can't keep up forever." Sonic proposed, trying to sate his confusion.

"Actually, good question, I'm not keen on lugging you around for the rest of my life."Knuckles sighed.

"well, we need to help you regain your muscles, so i assume we'll be doing some kind of rehabilitation."

"whats that gonna be like?"

"i dunno." tails admitted.

"you'll basically have to spend a long time doing exercises. well, i had to get rehab when i broke an arm a while back, but you'll have to get rehab for all your muscles... so.. that's gonna take a long time." knuckles explained.

"oh great."

"hey, maybe it wont be so bad... we'll ask cream about it."

They arrived at a higher up floor of this strange headquarters. And the doors of the elevators slid open. Knuckles dragged Sonic out with Tails just behind him. They now stood in a small, homely hallway with carpeting and dull pictures on the wall. The carpeting was particularly nice for Sonic, since he had just walked all the way across the rock city completely bare-pawed. At first, having a soft ground was nice. Except he wasn't really putting much weight on his own paws, and as a result, now the carpet was just brushing against all the places were gravel and pebbles had sliced up the bottom of his foot... the carpet was really dirty, brushing against small wounds, and he found himself having a hard time being thankful for it, so he tried to ignore it.

Tails looked into the room through the doorway beyond them, he inhaled and turned back to Knuckles and Sonic…

"So. How exactly are we gonna do this?"

Knuckles motioned a shrug, as much as he could with the hedgehog weighing on him.

"What's the holdup?" Sonic asked.

"In order to get to the guest rooms we need to go past the kitchen and the living room. There's people in there. We'd cause commotion, we're bringing back Sonic the hedgehog!" His eyes lit up briefly as he started to get more and more stressed.

"Wait, we could hop back on the elevator and bring him to your lab, we set him up on the couch there, and no one finds out, no harm no foul!"

"Knuckles, to get to my lab we have to go past literally all of the higher up's offices. If someone recognized him they'd flip out!"

"Ok, maybe we can find a disguise."

"You really think that no one would question why you're carrying a person around, disguised or no?"

"Maybe he can pretend to be dead." Knuckles was just throwing ideas out there...

"That would make things _so_ much worse!"

"Hey, why don't we just go for it?" Suggested Sonic.

"Go for it?" Tails asked as he turned to Sonic.

"Uh, hello? we walk right in there, and if they have questions, we answer them. Then I can get the situation straightened out, everyone learns what really happened to me, I can get something to eat, and we can all go to bed!"Sonic said.

"I don't think…" Tails started "that's a good idea."

"Well, what else you got? And what do you have to lose?"

"A lot actually."

Sonic scoffed "then what's the alternative? I was already spotted in town, they'd find me eventually anyway, why delay?"

"He's got a point there." Knuckles grumbled. Tails looked worried, but he silently nodded, and pushed the button on the side of the door. With a hiss, the door slid open.

* * *

End of chapter 4

* * *

super short, huh? sorry for uploading the other one late.

Oh boy. This next part is the real reason I had to rewrite, I split that part from this part because uhhhhhh the next chapter wasnt very good. it might… take me a whillle to rewrite that part.

Besides, opening a door is a good way to end a chapter yeah? It represents like…. New beginnings and changes and "opening up" and having an "open mind" and being emotionally open right? Get excited!


	5. Chapter 5

Sonic was in the center of the room. Being held up by his shoulders by his friends. Barely able to lift his head. He tried to stand on his own, but his feet hurt, his knees hurt, his legs hurt. So did his arms, neck, back ,and head.

He was staring down the sights of three other people in a small room. They were dead silent, searching his appearance with gaping expressions.

Old friends, but they stared at him as if he were a stranger.

He started to feel the weakness in his stomach begin to push itself up his throat again. He felt his senses dim and he heard ringing in his ear. He wanted to so badly to stand up tall and show them who he really was but his whole body would barely move.

"Hello…" was the best he could do.

"What is this?" Said the woman sitting at the bar who had spun on the stool to observe the blue hedgehog. Rouge the bat.

"Is this supposed to be some sort of joke?" Growled the hedgehog sitting against the wall. He glared at sonic, then to Tails and Knuckles. Shadow the hedgehog.

"Tails, Knuckles? … What's going on?" Said the younger Rabbit, holding her paws close to herself. She looked scared and confused, her eyes remained steadily on Sonic. Cream the rabbit.

Knuckles and Tails suddenly had no idea what to say. Maybe this was a bad idea.

"I'm back. That's what's going on." Sonic explained. But he felt embarrassed, not even being able to stand on his own, his friends staring him down as if he's an intruder.

"You're joking. Who the hell are you supposed to be?"Hissed the dark hedgehog.

"I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog."

"What… That's impossible..." Whimpered the young rabbit."Tails, what's going on?"

"Oh god, you idiots dragged him in here because he told you he was Sonic didn't you?" Shadow stood up. "How many times do you have to be told to let it go!?" he was getting increasingly more angry, walking closer, getting louder. Shadow walked up close and glared right down into the blue hedgehog's eyes. "We have very little respect for that _traitor_ in the first place. I wouldn't even regard someone who would pretend to be him just to get these moron's trust as a living thing."

"Shadow—" Tails started to protest.

"You stay out of this, fox!" Shadow directed his glare up to Tails. Fear ran up Sonic's weak form.

"Shadow, this isn't just some person we picked up. You really think we'd be that stupid?" Knuckles spoke up, at eye levels

"I wouldn't put it past—" Shadow's glare narrowed as he turned to Knuckles.

"That's enough!" The bat sitting at the bar spoke up, putting out her hand to interrupt their argument. She sighed, all eyes turned to her. "Knuckles, you mentioned you had a reason. What is that reason?"

"It's… Where we found him, and the condition he's in…"Knuckles explained.

"Condition? Is… there something I could help with?" Cream spoke up, leaning forward.

"… Maybe." Tails replied.

"Nothing urgent, I don't think." Sonic said, trying to turn towards cream to address her. "I just need time to recover."

"Oh … Okay…" Cream looked a little reassured, relaxing, but keeping a steady eye on sonic.

Tails took a deep breath, and proceeded to recount them discovering sonic. Sonic realized that he actually wasn't sure what had happened either. He just remembered waking up in the car.

"Well, earlier tonight, I got this distress signal, from an old machine to the west of here… And so, I took knuckles with me to go check it out. I thought maybe it was a survivor, or someone who needed our help. "

"You… That's incredibly risky, Tails…" Rouge remarked.

"I know but… But anyway, when we got there, it was Eggman's old base, you know? The one we destroyed when we got here?"

"Where are you going with this?" Shadow had backed down, now he was sat at one of the tables.

"Well, when we got there, there was one thing that was left of the rubble. Basically, it was a control panel. And after I messed with it… a cryogenic storage pod came up from underground."

Shadow snapped to attention at this, his ears perking up.

"And… that's where we found him. The cryogenic storage was actually mostly broken… It was just barely keeping him alive. And it listed him as a prisoner..."

"A prisoner being held in an underground cryogenic stasis pod at the brink of death… "Rouge pondered it. Shadow sat back in his chair, staring at the wall in thought.

"So… You are Sonic…?"Cream asked.

There were footsteps behind the doorway.

Everyone in the room turned to look at who it was. Tails gasped.

"Knuckles! Take Sonic to the living room!"

Knuckles silently dashed to the door on the other side of the room, dragging sonic with him, Sonic's feet dragged against the carpet helplessly. What was going on? Why were they hiding?

"I'm back." said the source of the footsteps as she walked into the room.

"Want a drink, general?" Rouge held up a martini glass and winked at the girl who had just walked in.

"Some other time Rouge." She chuckled lightly "Have you seen Sally?"

"Oh, Miss Sally returned to her room just a while ago, she might still be awake…" said Cream.

"that's great. Oh, heya Tails, I see you're back. How did that impromptu investigation go?"

"Hey, Amy! Uh, it was great! I mean, we didn't find anything! Are you sure, wasn't there uh…" Tails was trying to stop her, trying to block her from entering the next room.

"you can't fool me tails, I'm tired and I'm done for the day, there's just one last thing I need to take care of and I want to go to bed."

"can't you go around? It can wait until tomorrow, right?"

"are you hiding something from me?" she asked, a little menacingly.

"uh…." Tails was starting to panic. Sonic wanted to know just who the heck they felt they had to hie him from.

Amy pushed past tails into the room. She stopped in her track upon seeing sonic.

A pink female hedgehog stood in the doorway. She had long quills, she wore a dress shirt with a tie, emblems embroidered on the chest. And on her shoulders was a militaristic blazer with medals pinned all across the collar and chest and shoulder. She was wearing a short skirt, and a bulky belt stacked with pouches, holsters, and containers.

She stepped slowly closer. Knuckles held out sonic so Amy could get a closer look at him, pushing sonic forward a bit.

her expression immediately shifted to frozen shock as they made eye contact.

"that... that can't be..." she mumbled, scanning him from head to toe with her gaze. Sonic smiled weakly at her.

"it is really me, Amy, sorry about being away for so long."

Amy didn't say a word, she looked at her feet. Her face was obscured, he thought she might be crying... she took a step towards him...

She looked up. Sonic the Hedgehog had _never_ seen a more livid expression of unadulterated _rage_ in her eyes. And before he could think, she swung up a hand and reeled back to smack him. All at once Sonic's heartbeat lept and he nearly felt himself gag.

"-Amy!" Tails yelled out. She stopped before Tails even spoke.

He was sure he was sweating. And his breathing was thrown off, his chest heaved and hurt as his heart pounded… Amy took a step back, turning away, lowering her hand, but maintaining her grimace, her stare fixed on the blue hedgehog.

Her cheerful attitude was nowhere to be seen. She was controlled. Calculated. A leader.

she turned to the other two.

"Tails. Knuckles. Why don't you bring him into the dining room with everyone else?" Tail's ears drooped guiltily, Knuckles was restless.

Amy returned to the kitchen and waited for the three to return to the room.

Knuckles helped sonic down onto the only reclining chair in the dining room. The other three in the dining room stared silently as the three lined up in front of Amy.

"You all knew about this?" she looked around at everyone in the room. They simply looked away and said nothing. She sighed."You know I hate surprises."

Her arms were folded as she glared at sonic and everyone else. She stood up straight and spoke to them with a commanding voice.

"When exactly were you planning to tell me about this?" she asked, turning to Knuckles and Tails.

"A…Amy…."

"we just found him earlier tonight…" Knuckles explained. "trapped in a cryogenic storage pod underneath the ruins of Eggman's base. He was the one who sent the distress signal."

"What do you have to say for yourself?Are you even sure that this hedgehog is Sonic?" Amy looked down at sonic. And sonic froze in fear. He wasn't sure what he was expecting when he met Amy. But looking into her cold, judgmental eyes made him doubt if this hedgehog really was Amy at all. He kept expecting the real Amy to walk in and stop her, but she continued to look at him with moderate disgust.

"come on Amy… you know it's me…." He really had no idea what to say, but he didn't want to say nothing. she locked eyes with him with shock.

"so its true." She stood up straight. Everyone was silent. "sonic the hedgehog is not dead…" her expression shifted to a cold glare. " he betrayed us."

Sonic wanted to speak to defend himself but he couldn't find the strength in his throat.

"everyone leave the room." Amy motioned towards the door. "I'm going to talk to Sonic."

Rouge, Shadow and Cream filed out, looking back to watch as they left. Tails waited by the door until Knuckles joined him. And they waved to sonic as they left, hesitating with a subdued concerned look on their faces.


	6. Chapter 6

Sonic felt like he might puke again, he felt all at once freezing cold and burning hot. He was overcome by confusion and fear. He looked around the room, and although he saw a few exits, he couldn't even sat down opposite of him.

"So… You're Sonic, huh?"

Sonic nodded at her.

"And you're supposed to be-" suddenly he felt like that was a bad idea, even though she had - visibly - changed so much. "You are Amy, right?" he asked. She crossed her arms and shifted her weight on her feet. His teasing wasn't lost on her. And she wasn't smiling, far from it, her face was caught in a stoic frown.

"You sound so doubtful"

"I should say the same, don't you recognize me? You were my number one fan…" He reminisced.

He suddenly froze as Amy shot a glare at him. He flinched, apparently he had nearly stepped on a landmine. He thought she had a death glare when she was younger. This was a different breed of grimace. Less of an expression of rage and wrath like she usually would, more of a cold, judgmental stare, her eyes seared into him and made him tense up. Just a sense of 'I would be angry with you, but I don't think it would be worth my time'.

"do you have any idea what happened between your disappearance and now?" she asked.

"not much…" he trailed off.

"do you even know how long its been?"

"…no."

She sat back in her chair.

"You disappeared about ten years ago."

Ten years?

too weak to respond, his mind raced, trying to comprehend. Ten years.

"So. You are now 25 years old. How does that make you feel?" she leaned forward.

"uh…. Uhhhh" ten years. He was 25 now? He was gone for 10 years. He hadn't even…he tried to push that out of his mind so he could listen to the rest of what Amy had to say.

"after the disappearance of Sonic the Hedgehog, Eggman was briefly quiet. And during this time, the freedom fighters spent a lot of time searching for him. But not even a few months passed before Eggman executed his plan.

Or rather, new line of robots that he had been designing and testing for many years, he produced them en masse and suddenly unleashed them on our cities and villages.

They were stronger, faster, more destructive...

And without Sonic, the freedom fighters didn't stand a chance."

Sonic could only lie helplessly. It sounded like a dream. What did she mean? When did he make them? Why did he wait to release them? Why did he get rid of him first?

"so. For years we desperately continued to search for him. Sonic the Hedgehog, I mean. We assumed you had either gotten captured or killed by Eggman. But he claimed that he didn't do anything to you. The other possibility was that you simply… ran away. But we could never find you, and we were quickly losing the battle."

"but… you don't need me. You guys are strong enough to fight him back on your own… how—"

Amy slammed her fist on the arm of her chair. Her eyes boored into him with barely contained anger. She reminded him of a predator hunting prey, as she lashed out at him. He stayed silent.

"We didn't know that!" she yelled. Then she sat back. "yet."

"We tried fighting him off, but he attacked multiple places at once. Those new machines were so much more powerful. We tried, but we didn't succeed enough. Our homes were being threatened. "

"then… you became the leader, right?"

"… So Knuckles and Tails did tell you some of it?" she waited for him to respond, but he couldn't think of anything to say, so he just stayed silent. "Yes, after I proposed we moved the survivors to this secret city on angel island, it was decided that I would be leader. That was about 5 years ago.

Since then, we've been able to protect ourselves and the survivors. We have bases across the globe… and areas of land that we are protecting, mostly places where there are other camps of survivors. The freedom Fighters briefly fell out of the public's good graces for failing to repel Robotnik's attacks. However, after the age of Sonic's leadership officially ended, we have slowly been making progress. And in recent years… we have at least been able to maintain the safety of other survivors. We've been at a stalemate… but at least we can fight off raids now."

"Can I ask a question, Amy?" sonic began.

"I am a commander. Most people would prefer to me as Miss Rose or General Rose." She stated.

"Amy, really?"

"Only my friends should call me Amy." Sonic tripped over his thoughts. "No Sonic. We are not. Friends." She answered him without him having to ask in the first place.

"What… Why?" he was starting to wish that he could blame this uncomfortable feeling on his sickness. And although he felt like he might puke, it was just out of nervousness. If he puked, sitting down, resting, just out of confusion and fear, that would be even more humiliating. Amy's judgmental stare made him both more nervous about the possibility of him throwing up, as well as more nauseous and more aware of how much he was in pain and how hard it was to breathe.

"I'm no idiot sonic. I know how Cryogenic storage works too. The base where you were found was destroyed by the freedom fighters 8 years ago in the war. Even the freedom fighters hold some prisoners in Cryogenic storage. If those machines aren't maintained, within a year the person in storage can initiate removal if they wake up.

I find it hard to believe that you wouldn't have taken the first opportunity to escape. But instead you waited.

Tell me Sonic, what _actually_ happened?"

"I…."

"Surely, Sonic the Hedgehog isn't so stupid that he would fall for the machine's mind control. And he isn't so weak minded that he didn't even wake up when the machine's power source and network went out. Surely, he wouldn't be so easily defeated that you didn't realize that you could use one of those old machines to infiltrate Eggman's computer and find out what's went on. And if he did, he wouldn't have given up and gone back to sleep?"

Sonic stayed silent. Weak minded? Stupid? Did that happen? Was this true?

"Sonic the hedgehog can't possibly be so slow and dim-witted that he would sleep for ten years while a war waged without him. Can he?"

He hung his head. He didn't know what to say. Did he do that by choice? He didn't remember. He couldn't remember.

"that's what I thought." She muttered in a sigh. He made one last effort to try to stand up to her. All he remembered was feeling like he was suffocating.

"W-wait! No, I… I don't remember choosing to stay there… I would have gotten out, but if I was given a chance I never knew about it! I—" Amy stood up, slamming her foot down. the pound of her heel hitting the floor stopped him in his tracks, he flinched, and it hurt.

"Those pods are designed so that you can get out if something goes wrong. We _destroyed_ that facility that the computer was a part of! I would say that something went wrong, and you _were_ able to escape!

Do you understand?"

Sonic was too afraid to speak. She slowly walked closer to him

"Failing that! It was your reckless decisions that got _you_ there and us _here_. If you had just thought for one _second_ about what the consequences of your recklessness might be, you could have avoided it entirely. And if you weren't so dependent on Eggman's outward foolishness and your own bravado and speed, we wouldn't have been so unprepared for Eggman's invasion.

Among us survivors, Sonic the Hedgehog is the icon of the childish and careless mistakes that started this war! Sonic the Hedgehog is why so many innocents were killed.

His disappearance has long been the topic of speculation, but as time has gone on the undeniable truth has become clear. Sonic the hedgehog is not what we need.

You are our greatest mistake." She circled around him, her eyes set on glaring down at him mercilessly.

He felt his body try to curl up defensively but his limbs and his spine were too weak to respond. He knew he shouldn't, but it was getting harder not to. He didn't want to be so outwardly scared but his mind and his body were working against each other. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her stare harshly down, walking circles around him without ever losing focus. She seemed to be aware of his discomfort but did not falter or show mercy.

"You are an example among all the remaining Mobians, of the sort of behavior and attitude that brought on so much unnecessary destruction.

The Freedom Fighters have no need for you anymore, Sonic the Hedgehog."

Sonic lay paralyzed in confusion. He didn't feel so disoriented. But he wished he was. He wished he didn't have to listen. He wished he could just get sick and go back to sleep. She stood over him, attacking him…

"… This pitiable attitude doesn't look good on you, Sonic." She towered over him … "You'll be permitted to stay with us. But don't expect me to feel sorry for you. If you inconvenience us or hold us back… you can bet I'll send you right back where you came from." She backed off and sighed, the blue hedgehog was motionless, averting his gaze, staying quiet.

"That's all. I hope you understand your situation now. Cream will be here soon to take you to the infirmary…"

She walked away from the limp, blue hedgehog, who was avoiding looking at her… She went through the door and stepped out into the hallway. And she paged Cream to collect Sonic. And she left him cold and alone on the chair.

* * *

authors note: heyo

so basically, on account of life things ,i have been busy as of late, and i am left with very little energy or free time,

although i have written a few chapters ahead, at some point i may have to skip a week.

juusst letting you know

edit: oopsie, made an error! then i fixed it, i think


	7. Chapter 7

Cream eventually came back from the medical ward. She wheeled an empty stretcher into the room where she had been hanging out with the others. She looked around, the room seemed to be empty, but she heard some irregular breathing. She spotted Sonic curled up on the single reclining chair in the dining room. She rushed over to him.

Was he experiencing some sort of complication? Was he hurt?

She quickly did a one over of the blue hedgehog. He was breathing, but a little heavily, sharply and irregularly, she prodded his shoulder, walking around to get a better angle so she could see him.

"Mister s-Sonic, are you alright?"

She looked at his face, his eyes were open, but his gaze looked distant. He looked up at her but only for a moment before he covered his face. she realized what was going on.

Cream was taken aback. But she felt bad… He was crying.

She started to panic a little. She knew how Amy was when it came to Sonic. It was a bad idea to leave her alone with him.

"I'm… Sorry, I'm…" he mumbled. He sounded so unlike the Sonic she remembered. He sounded so weak… He was just barely audible.

"N-no it's okay Sonic, I'm here to help you! Um… I need to take you back to infirmary so I can run some tests… "

He stopped talking. He looked toward the stretcher. Cream ran over and pulled it up to the chair.

Sonic put his arms up on the stretcher and tried to pull himself up. But he struggled to hold himself up, he managed to get his torso on the stretcher, but he was stuck on the chair. Cream got ready to lift his feet up and carry him onto the stretcher. He was much lighter than she thought. She probably could have just put him on the stretcher herself…

But he probably didn't want to talk... He curled up again and tried to control his breathing so his crying wasn't so obvious. The young rabbit felt sorry for him. After years of coming to view him as a traitor… She wasn't so sure how important that was now. He felt bad about what he caused, clearly…

Well, the best way to figure out what was going on with him was to examine him.

But, she reached underneath the stretcher and pulled out a thin sterile blanket. She unfolded it and tossed it over him. She whispered quietly, both to her patient and to herself. "It'll be okay."" It'll be okay." "It'll be okay" Sonic pulled his face under the blanket and curled up. His breathing was evening out. She silently wheeled him out to the hallway.

* * *

Amy saw a figure a ways before the door to her office. The hallway was dimly lit since almost no one was working at this time of night. Her ears twitched against the silent air.

A figure with long ears and two bushy tails stood waiting for her.

"Tails." She nodded, slowing to a stop a few steps away from him.

"Amy… You weren't too hard on him. Were you?" she sighed and maintained eye contact.

"Tails, I know you still regard Sonic as a friend. I suppose it's respectable that you can still forgive him after all we've gone through. I won't hold you accountable for continuing to believe in him... Perhaps that's why you found him anyway."

"No! I was just concerned about what might happen if Eggman sensed the signal, I wanted to check it out before he found it…"

"It's no use lying to me Tails." Amy looked at him sympathetically. "I know you and Knuckles are both glad to see him back. I don't hate you for that."

"Aren't you, at least, a little happy that we finally found him?" he asked.

Amy didn't answer.

"I mean, I know you never talked about him after you came back… we all knew you had sort of, condemned him but…" he sensed that she wasn't going to give him an answer "… I'm sorry, General..." his ears flopped down. "but… if it's okay with you, I'd like to rehabilitate him until his strength returns…"

"Rehabilitate?"

"If he would agree to it, then maybe if I can return him to his former strength, he could be a great asset."

"… I'm not sure how I would feel about having such a loose cannon among my soldiers, Tails. And besides, you have your own duties and work to do. I can't have you wasting too much time on other projects. You are an important asset too."

"I know Amy, but I can figure it out, I'm sure! I won't let it interfere with my duty"

"Sonic the Hedgehog isn't our responsibility."

"I'm offering to take on the responsibility of watching over Sonic. You can trust me to take care of myself right?"

Amy sighed.

"I want to Tails… But you are an essential team member, I can't have you compromised in any way."

"Please Amy, give me a chance!" Tails begged her. She crossed her arms and though about it.

"…Okay. because I know you believe in him. Until he returns to health, he is under your supervision. After that... we'll see."

"Thank you General Rose!" Tails gleefully saluted her, perking up almost instantly. She smiled at him, Tails was still a kid at heart. She nodded and continued walking.

"By the way, Amy, how did your uh… Conversation with Sonic go?" Tails asked, flicking his tails curiously. She held onto the doorknob to her office, she hid her expression from Tails. She knew it would put a damper on his mood, but it was better to be honest than to get his hopes up.

"I'm sorry. My thought on what has happened with Sonic the Hedgehog still have not changed." She stated, looking straight ahead, into the office. "Even if Sonic the Hedgehog is still alive, we are better off without him."

Tail's ears fell again…

"However, only time will tell, I suppose.

Goodnight." She opened the door and entered the office.

"Goodnight…" Tails replied. Amy shut the door.

* * *

She turned on the lights in her office. Sure, After all these years, it sure was satisfying to see the cause of all her troubles cower and flinch beneath her in a weakened, nearly broken state. It had given her momentary pleasure, revenge, catharsis, to see Sonic the Hedgehog writhe in discomfort under her trained eye.

But the fact remained that now he was here.

She walked to the window on the other side of the room.

On the desk next to the window in a little box, she looked at

She opened the box and picked it up the small bottle cap, painted pink with glitter and stickers covering it, with a safety pin glued to the back. She clenched it in her fist. It was filled with memories. The reason she changed. Why she was made the leader. Why she lost her arm. And why the Freedom Fighters didn't need Sonic the Hedgehog. And she pinned it to her jacket.

* * *

Chapter 7 End

* * *

authors note to the readers:

okay, i'm gonna be super real, i'm behind on writing this! school isnt over for me yet, so bleh...

i still gotta catch up with my last bits of homework. we'll see how the next couple weeks pan out. moost likely i will be able to get the next chapter out on time, but at this rate i may need to take a tiny hiatus to catch up, but i'm gonna try and avoid that.


	8. Chapter 8

And the next morning, Sonic woke up.

He was blinded by light streaming in through a window on the other side of the room. Despite the curtain, the sunlight immediately knocked him out of his sleep.

His eyes still ached dryly. As much as he tried to turn away and ignore the light, it was keeping him up…

He thought of getting up to see if he could close those curtains more. But as he tried to pull himself into a sitting position, his entire body ached down to his bones and he remembered his condition. He couldn't remember if it had been this bad the night before.

He glanced around as the events of last night slowly came back to him, but his eyes were too tired to see, they passed over the room around him almost entirely. and he gave up trying to get up. He glanced at the clock.

It was really early. In fact, it shocked him since the sun was up. How could it possibly be 4 AM? It was probably sunrise.

He could do nothing but lie down and think.

It was, in truth, so difficult to adjust to the real world. He only briefly noticed that he was half asleep.

This body stung and felt so heavy and this place felt unsafe.

He could only vaguely remember that painful dream he had, and the time he spent caked in weightless liquid, he remembered it as being slow, silent, and nauseating. But here, theoretically, he could go fast...'Right now, that's not a good idea.'...

For a second he was asleep again but he jolted out of it by his own thoughts.

He was stuck here. For now. What on earth was going on? What was he going to do now?

His options weren't clear.

Though he assumed he could stay with the Freedom Fighters or perhaps go off on his own somehow. But in the state he was in, that couldn't happen. This iteration of the Freedom Fighters was militaristic. It wasn't going to work for him to stay. On the other hand, this was where all his friends were.

He found himself drifting off into a light sleep.

This place was peaceful enough. And it was completely silent.

Barely 10 minutes had passed.

The door slid open.

The blue hedgehog opened his eyes to see who walked in.

He flinched somewhat when he saw the pink hedgehog in a navy blue blazer who stepped in. She still had that air of authority, and her glare was still unwavering. He was trying to forget about what happened with Amy.

"You're up early." He said to her. "It's only four AM."

The girl glanced at the clock.

"That clock is wrong." She stated.

"Oh." Sonic responded. He had no idea what time it really was, then. "Could you close those curtains?" he asked.

"I've come to offer you a deal." Amy closed her eyes and walked closer to the foot of the stretcher, Completely ignoring his request. "We will oversee your rehabilitation. I have agreed to provide for you until you recover. Under the condition that you don't interfere with any of our business."

"That's all? I have no interest in messing with you in the first place."

"I mean it. This means you can't go out or be careless at all. In fact I would discourage you from thinking of yourself as having anything to do with the Freedom Fighters." She was keeping her gaze steady, staring him down yet again. This time though, she wasn't being so aggressive. But that didn't make matters much better. She sighed and smiled to herself. "I'm letting you know now that as of 6 years ago you were officially let go from the Freedom Fighters. You have no business here."

Sonic scowled. So they kicked him out, huh?

"you should be thankful." She continued "Back then there were some strong arguments that you should be branded a public enemy." She looked at him expectantly.

"What do you want from me, an apology? A thank you?" he was getting fed up with her treating him like this. She noticed. And she shifted her expression and narrowed her glare on him.

"I'm expecting for you to understand the gravity of what you've done."

"What exactly did I do?"

"behaving carelessly and underestimating your circumstances. You didn't think about your situation. And you didn't consider who was relying on you."

"I made one mistake!"

"you made a critical mistake! And you weren't in such a position to make such a mistake!"She walked up to the side of the stretcher.

"you know for a fact that this wasn't my fault, Amy!"

She grabbed the side of the stretcher, she wasn't really yelling, but she was raising her voice and burning a glare into his eyes.

"You are not in _any position_ to be calling me 'Amy'! You are _my enemy_!"

"enemy!? Amy you're being ridiculous. It was an _accident_!" Sonic started yelling in response. His voice ached.

"10 years of war is not an accident! Countless have lost their lives because of you and your absence." Amy stood up straight.

"I didn't have a choice! If I could have, I would have come back!"

"But you could have! How do you think you got rescued?! You were the one who chose to wake up!

You only believed you didn't have a choice."

"I…"

Damnit.

He couldn't remember.

"Are you satisfied now? Do you understand what you've done?"

He didn't. He really didn't. But he got the feeling Amy wouldn't stop yelling and badgering him about it until he stopped fighting. He stayed quiet.

It seemed he had appeased her. She calmed down, eased off, back away, and changed the subject, turning away from him.

"That commotion you caused in town caused quite a stir. We're unsure what to tell everyone.

Mostly people were just surprised. Everyone forgot about Sonic the Hedgehog." She took a sideways glance at him.

Somehow that really stung. He hoped Amy wouldn't notice that he tensed up. But oh, she did. She let loose a malicious smirk.

"It's been years since anyone's even asked about you. I don't remember the last time I heard anyone talking about you.

Other than perhaps… I think someone once expressed that they were glad that I was so unlike Sonic the Hedgehog.

Other than that. Everyone sure is willing to forget. Of course, I'm no exception.

So don't worry, I'm sure they'll forget about you and your embarrassing little incident sooner or later."

He cringed again as he remembered throwing up in the town center. Everyone looking at him with anger and disgust… he felt weak.

"Is that true… you forgot about me? Everyone Forgot about me?" he hadn't meant to say that out loud, really. Amy's sinister grin widened as she exacted her revenge.

"That's right, not a murmur about you for more than 5 years. We gave up on you.

You let us down, you're unnecessary and you disappointed us."

She leaned in closer so she was towering over him. "Are you getting this? Do you want me to spell it out? We don't need you anymore." Sonic stared sideways at the pillow, avoiding looking at her " Once you have enough meat on your bones, I would encourage you to leave this place. Or, die." She was staring him down "whichever you prefer.

Your other option is to stay with the Freedom Fighters."

Sonic turned his head to her aggressively.

"oh, I can assure you, I'll be out of your hair. I have no interest in helping you or the Freedom Fighters.

You can go ahead and tell anyone who asks that Sonic the Hedgehog is not staying with the Freedom Fighters and in fact, has rejected them entirely. Sonic the hedgehog is free, outside the city, who knows where he is or what he'll do?

That will be true enough in time anyway, _General_ _Rose_." He scowled at her.

"Good to hear that.

Thank you for thinking of the public image of the Freedom Fighters. It doesn't look good for us to be associating with a public enemy." She seemed to relax for a second, backing off and lowering her voice.

"I wasn't thinking of your image, I was thinking of mine. But whatever helps you sleep at night, my Princess!" he smirked.

She sneered, as if she was going to spit at him, but she scoffed and turned away, trying to brush it off. She walked toward the door. And she waved dismissively, not looking back at him as she walked through the doorway.

So that was that.

Goodbye Freedom Fighters.

* * *

End of chapter 8

* * *

hey all, sooo, you may have noticed the next two chapters were actually deleted, that was by me, don't worry.

a review (by Roxa814, thank you by the way!) pointed out that going on hiatus with the last two or so chapters lacking any actual progression... yeah not a great idea, and i completely agree.

so i tried to write continuing the little arc i was planning to do, so in the very least i could put up something more interesting, but instead i wrote myself into a corner, so yeah, double whoops.

the hiatus i still on since i need to reroute the story slightly, plus ive been more busy as of late, despite it being summer vacation.

speaking of, i hope everyones having a good summer!

see you when i get back on track!


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